


Reconnaissance, Or How To Deal With Bullies

by NyeLew



Series: Turretverse [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-22
Updated: 2013-08-23
Packaged: 2017-12-24 08:38:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/937904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyeLew/pseuds/NyeLew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AR-1 searches for a potential alpha site. Keeping the secret of Atlantis is key. How do you do that when every time you go off-world the Wraith attack?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He was leading his own team. He wasn’t just the military commander of Atlantis, now that Sumner was dead; he had his own off-world team. The Machines had thrown fits when someone had told them both the military and science commanders were going off-world together, but John had ignored them.

They’d gotten on well enough without creepy AIs telling them what to do before the damned things had been invented, so he didn’t feel too bad about it. The turret guns, too, pissed him off. They sounded so sincere in their desire not to be harmed, so mournful when they said they didn’t want to kill him that he almost felt bad for getting McKay to switch the one near his office to mute.

Almost.

They’d (the Atlantis command staff, of which he was a part, even though he pretended to forget) decided to seek out an alpha site. Machine analysis confirmed the decision (apparently, it was protocol to seek Machine analysis even if you ignored it) so AR-1 and AR-2 were sent out scouting. It was the fourth mission John had taken, not counting the ill-fated first mission.

It was supposed to be a standard recon mission scouting for a possible alpha site. They needed a place to meet with Pegasus people to arrange alliances and trade deals, and to exchange information, that couldn’t be in any way tied back to Atlantis. They’d decided to keep their affiliation with the city a secret, so as not to alert the Wraith to its emergence from the bottom of the ocean. Wraith Hives over the city signalled nothing but death and destruction—at the sucky-hands of the Wraith.

It was his fourth mission and the _third_ time the Wraith attacked. AR-1 was the only team to suffer from Wraith attacks, and whispers around Atlantis pegged Teyla or another Athosian as being Wraith spies. Which was clearly bullshit – John had seen just how strongly the Athosians hated the Wraith, and were thankful to the Expedition for saving their people, their children.

John knew it wasn’t them. He’d thought better of the Expedition, but apparently they couldn’t get over their insular instincts. They were dealing with _highly advanced non-human aliens_. Who lived in ships that were probably alive, who _sucked the youth out of their victims_.

Nobody had any imagination any more, which was why John was sat arguing with Elizabeth about Teyla’s inclusion in AR-1. She didn’t believe the rumours herself, but ‘prudence dictates’ or some other sort of bullshit – John didn’t care. Teyla was on his team, and on his team she’d stay. Until she wanted to leave.

*

AR-1 was attacked by Wraith on their next off-world mission. The planet was uninhabited, and not known to have had recent inhabitants. Teyla had provided them with an address, and had suggested it would be suitable for an off-world site.

John had agreed. It had a defensible area where they could have built a make-shift field base, allowing for additions later on. The gate itself was in a perfect location. In all, John thought it’d make a great alpha site.

Until they were attacked by the Wraith. Again. This had been the fourth time in five missions; he was starting to think the only reason it hadn’t been five was dumb luck. They made it out okay, but it was the final straw for Elizabeth.

She took Teyla off his team. That was a dick move, he thought, even if he could understand—maybe—how she got to her decision. Something was clearly up, John had to agree with that—but Teyla? The Athosians? They hated the Wraith more than Milky Way stargate vets hated the Goa’uld.

There was another explanation.

*

Teyla was shocked the first time someone of the Expedition spoke rudely to her. Not because she thought herself above rudeness; everyone experienced it from time to time, and it was a natural reaction to adversity and circumstance, if a negative one.

No, she was more shocked that anyone could truly associate her with the Wraith, associate her people with the Wraith. They had been branded Wraith worshippers, though the Earthers knew not the term nor its significance.

It started off small. It would be a look in the hallway, a glance that lingered too long, and then looked away too fast. It soon progressed to whispered words uttered in hushed corners, little more than salacious gossip.

It reached a head when she had to defend herself physically against one Marine who called her “alien scum”. She knew that he did not speak for all his people, this his words and actions were his own—but they hurt all the same, and only served to confirm that she was no true partner to the Expedition and the people of Earth.

She took the matter to Elizabeth, and was dismayed to find that she was to be relieved of duty. ‘To allay suspicions,’ Elizabeth had said. If AR-1 went off-world without her and was attacked again, that would be proof of her innocence. And if they weren’t attacked?

Teyla had not needed to ask.

*

Rodney hadn’t ever thought this would be the case, but he was unhappy that they hadn’t been attacked on that last mission. They’d even found a potential alpha site, which was great. In all, it was the best mission they’d ever had, and they’d had some pretty bad missions.

Except that not being attacked meant Teyla’s case was weaker. Obviously she wasn’t a spy. He knew that. But the one time—wasn’t it two? Had she come on the mission they hadn’t been attacked?—she didn’t come was the one time the Wraith didn’t, either.

He knew what people would say. He knew what Elizabeth would be forced to do. It was an utterly ridiculous situation. Everything he’d heard from the Athosians led to them hating the Wraith on a deep, visceral level. Like him and citrus. So he got it.

Luckily, Ford didn’t believe the other bone-heads. He couldn’t, not with working with Teyla. He suspected Teyla had had words with him, with that way that she had that brooked no opposition.

How would she even contact them anyway? The Machines monitored basically all the useful communications frequencies in use around the city. They’d have picked up any secret messages to the Wraith.


	2. Chapter 2

“You can’t tell me you believe one of the Athosians is a spy, Carson,” said Rodney derisively. “Why would they bring the Wraith to us? _We saved their people. We nuked a Hive._ We’re like, the second coming.” He shovelled away his MRE. “Getting shot at makes me hungry,” he explained.

“Ah, no, of course not,” said Beckett quickly. “I think I know them a wee bit too well for that. They’re good people, on the whole… but it’s very strange that it’s only your team that gets attacked, and four times out of five is too big to be a coincidence.”

Rodney snorted.

“Sample size is too small,” he said. “I trust Teyla. She’s only ever been helpful.”

“You’re just a sucker for a pretty face, aren’t you?” replied Carson, smiling. “I don’t believe the talk either, Rodney, I’m just telling you what people are saying. I heard some of the Marines say this never would have happened if Sumner were still around.”

Rodney rolled his eyes. _Of all the things_ …

“Yes, I admit that it is a little strange that we’ve been attacked so many times and nobody else has. Maybe they’re tracking Sheppard or—”

He paused mid-sentence.

“Okay, so, as far as anyone’s been able to tell, attacks have only been on us, right? There haven’t been any recent culls, as far as the Athosians can tell? Yes, yes,” he put up a hand to forestall any objections. “Maybe we can’t trust the Athosians, who cares. Anyway, they’re only attacking us and nobody else. Probably, we only woke up one or two Hives. And _Sheppard_ was on their ship, maybe they stuck a transmitter in him—Teyla said they screw with your mind, and I’ve _seen_ what they can do.”

“You should go to Elizabeth, Rodney,” offered Carson.

“I’m going to.”

*

“Let me get this straight.” Elizabeth paused. Rodney and Carson had come to her with some half-baked idea that John had been fitted with a Wraith transmitter somehow, and that that was the cause of their problems, not an Athosian spy. It was a preferable situation to the alternative. “You think Major Sheppard has a transmitter somewhere on his person?”

“Or it could be Ford! He went inside the Hive, too. Or maybe it could be Teyla – she was there too. Point is, no one is complicit in this scenario.”

“Dr Beckett, did you observe anything like a transmitter in your post-mission medicals?” She thought it best to get it over with immediately. It was a very convincing scenario, if it passed this one test; if not she would be forced to consider that someone amongst the Athosians was to blame—and all evidence pointed to Teyla.

It did not sit well with her. For their only allies in the Pegasus galaxy to actually be the first true enemies? It should have been unthinkable. The response she feared was almost confirmed by the way Carson responded.

“Well, no, not as such,” he started. “But the Wraith have advanced technology, so I suppose it’s possible I just missed it.”

“So there’s an untraceable tracking device implanted into potentially several of our Expedition members?” Elizabeth queried. “I think we have probable cause to seek another explanation, unless anyone can find any other avenues to explore.” She turned to Teyla.

“I’m sorry, Teyla. The allegations are no excuse for some of the treatment you have suffered, and for that I am truly, deeply sorry. However, prudence dictates that…”

“Wait a minute, Elizabeth,” said John suddenly. She frowned. She didn’t appreciate the interruption, the subtle undermining of her command. She made a note to speak with him later. “Teyla, that necklace of yours. You said you lost it when the Wraith attacked?”

She nodded.

“And you’ve never been attacked just out the gate before finding it?”

“I have not. Are you suggesting that I carry a transmitter?” She removed the necklace and held it out.

“Well, it’s a big coincidence that you lose it the night of an attack, then find it and get attacked every time you go through the gate.”

“Let me take a look,” said Rodney, snatching it from Teyla’s outstretched hand. “In the lab, obviously.”

“All right. Rodney, you’d better bring me good news. I’m sorry, Teyla; I hope you understand that I have to explore all of the options available to me.”

When they had all gone, Elizabeth slumped into her chair and sighed. It was physically taxing, leading the Expedition, and situations like this didn’t make it any better. She hoped the Athosians would be exonerated with this new piece of evidence.

*

Teyla had experienced social exclusion before, as a young woman—no, as a girl. The children had gossiped about her gift, called her Wraith; it had hurt. What she experienced from some the Expedition members was like that. It had hurt her: she had offered them nothing but hospitality, advice, help. She had offered them her knowledge of worlds, inhabited and uninhabited. She had fought with them, defended them to her own people.

It was not all of them, of course. Those who knew her personally, who had spoken with her at length—those had been her true friends. Her team in particular, and Dr Beckett. Elizabeth’s words were not hurtful, not exactly. Teyla knew that as a leader of people, Elizabeth had to consider everything that was brought before her with objectivity. That was how it had to be.

But it still did hurt. To be thought of as a Wraith-worshipper, even by those who did not know of such sickness—it was enough to make her feel sick herself. Major Sheppard’s idea had been a welcome suggestion, and Teyla hoped that Rodney would confirm the theories soon.

And that she hadn’t unwittingly told the Wraith the location of the city. The Earthers were strong, but Teyla knew they could not withstand a foe such as the Wraith in a siege of the city. Not without preparation and a Zero Point Module which Rodney spoke of often.

She made a resolution to remember all she could about stories of the Ancestors, and of the legacies they left behind for the people of Pegasus. Perhaps a ZPM could be found there, in the ancient histories and the tales of Pegasus.

They would have no reason to doubt her or her people then.

*

He’d worked out it was a Wraith transmitter quickly enough. Atlantis seemed to be out of its range, as the Wraith hadn’t appeared above the city, but he’d been careful to switch it off. It seemed to activate with the gate, which explained why it always seemed to work off-world. He put the one time they weren’t attacked down to luck—the Wraith had probably been too far away from a stargate to get there in time.

So Sheppard had decided to piss off the Wraith by sending them to a decoy planet and blowing up their recon team. It was a bit gory, but Rodney supposed that was how military types did things. And it would send a message to the Wraith, who hopefully didn’t know they were in Atlantis.

They’d been keeping it secret from any natives they met, bar the Athosians, who said they were cousins from a distant, insular world. So he was hopeful, at least. _Something_ had to go right for them after getting to Pegasus.

Three teams of Marines were assembled in the gate room. The trap had already been laid, several hours before the operation. The mission was Expedition staff only, which accounted for any potential Athosian spies (which Rodney thought was ridiculous, because _hello, Wraith transmitter?_ ).

“Dial the gate,” said Elizabeth calmly. Rodney supposed this was hard for her. She was basically okaying an attack on a thinking enemy, but these were Wraith. They ate people like people ate cows, but worse because people didn’t need their cows to be afraid.

The transmitter was driven through the gate on what Rodney was pleased to see was basically a toy remote-controlled car. The idea was that they’d drive the transmitter around on the surface for a while, lure the Wraith in and then blow the trap, all from the comfort of Atlantis. The Wraith wouldn’t know where they dialled from, they’d get rid of the transmitter and send the Wraith a message.

Nice and tidy. Self-contained. Unlike the Wraith they’d killed.


	3. Chapter 3

Although she had been exonerated, the situation with the Wraith transmitter had caused tensions between her people and the Earthers. It was unavoidable, she knew; her people felt betrayed, theirs felt lost and alone in a hostile galaxy.

She did not wish to forsake the safety of Atlantis, to take her people beyond its walls and spires to begin anew. She did not wish to leave the fight – without allies in Pegasus, it was likely the Earthers would stay secluded in the city, trying only to uncover its secrets. That could not be allowed to happen.

So it had pleased her when Dr Beckett had come to her and asked her permission to take some DNA samples so that he could check whether she could receive ‘gene therapy’.  Whether she would take up his offer, Teyla did not know. The Earthers were blasé about their genetic modifications—she had learnt them some of them even had tiny machines living in their blood—but her people would not understand.

Perhaps if she could learn to use the technology of the Ancestors they would take a different view. Truly, that would place them squarely as part of the Expedition, as people who could use the legacy of the Ancestors as it was meant to be used.

So she had allowed him to take samples, and she had talked patiently with him of his home, his family and his work. It was fascinating, all: the Earthers knew things about things Teyla did not know existed. Their knowledge was vast, and their expertise astonishing.

And then, when Beckett had finished, Teyla left. She had taken to teaching the Marines how to fight with bantos; it was not merely a kind gesture. It was a warning, a statement, that she knew how to defend herself and that incidents such as the one before would not go unpunished.

*

Carson had gathered them all in the command room. He’d asked for permission to test Teyla’s DNA for ATA-markers already, and Elizabeth knew that he’d found something interesting enough in her DNA to call a meeting. She hoped Teyla had some of the ATA markers – it would make it easier to explain to the ISA why they had aliens living on Atlantis, for one thing.

And it would solve problems of integration with the Athosians, who were still their only allies in Pegasus.

“I found something very interesting in your DNA, Teyla,” he started. He showed them a slide containing three separate, different, markers of particular genes. “What we see here is the region of ATA markers. The middle one is, ah, Major Sheppard’s—I’ve outlined the ATA markers in blue. The bottom one is Dr Weir’s, and you can see that there are very few ATA markers. What we’d usually expect from Teyla’s is that it would resemble either Dr Weir’s or Major Sheppard’s.”

“And we can all clearly see that it doesn’t,” interrupted Rodney, “so tell us what that means.”

Carson glared at Rodney.

“I was getting there, if you’d just let me finish. Honestly, Rodney. As you can see, Teyla’s is at the top. I’ve marked the differences in green. There are no ATA markers and no other Ancient genes, either—but what’s strange is that I don’t think these markers here are human _or_ Ancient.”

Elizabeth dared a glance at Teyla. Her face was pale, although Carson’s news didn’t seem to surprise her.

“I think they’re Wraith.”

“Woah, woah, woah, Doc,” said Major Sheppard. “What are you talking about? Teyla’s not a Wraith.”

“No, John,” said Teyla. “What Dr Beckett says does not surprise me. I told you of my gift, that I can sense the Wraith; I did not know that it meant I am part… Wraith.”

“Well, actually,” said Beckett, “the interesting thing is that you’re not _really_ part Wraith. You’re 100% human, I believe. The interesting thing about genetics is that you can use bits and pieces of code from different species and even radically different phyla because it’s like a toolkit. The Ancients seeded a very particular kind of life wherever they went, you understand – life that was genetically and biochemically compatible with their own. You’re no more Wraith than I am Ancient, love, and trust me when I say I’m no Ancient. Back on Earth we’ve put fish genes in tomatoes; that doesn’t mean our tomatoes are part fish.”

Rodney snapped his fingers.

“No, that makes sense—Teyla, you said you can ‘feel’ when the Wraith are around, right? Okay, so, that’s because you have a little bit of Wraith DNA that lets you into their creepy psychic network, right?”

“In light of recent news, I would have to agree,” said Teyla. Elizabeth couldn’t help but think Teyla felt a little lost. “If this means I am a security risk, I will leave Atlantis immediately.”

“What? No, don’t be ridiculous,” said Rodney. “They probably can’t sense you unless you go poking around because, hello, you’re human! You won’t have the same presence as an actual Wraith because—correct me if I’m wrong, Carson, voodoo isn’t my area of expertise—you only have the very mild psychic abilities caused by your particular gene cluster.”

“You’re an asset, not a liability,” drawled Sheppard. “So no ATA markers at all?”

“Ah, no. It’s possible there are other ARGs which I haven’t yet been able to determine – oh, that’s an Ancient Related Gene. I have a theory that there are more of them than just ATA, but what I really need is an Ancient genetic database to find out.”

“Carson, you are aware that you are standing inside what used to be the capital city of the Ancient empire – in two galaxies – right? If there’s a database, it’s here.”

“Gentlemen.”

They stopped talking. The news had been a lot to take in, but if Teyla wasn’t a risk but was, as Major Sheppard had suggested, an asset – that was good news. It was disappointing that Teyla had no ATA markers, but then—it wasn’t assured that Teya would take to genetic manipulation anyway. Many of her own Expedition had had concerns with changing the very nature of themselves, of their DNA. And yet everyone had tried the therapy before leaving Earth behind; it could have meant the difference between failure and success.

“This is an interesting revelation, to be sure. However, I find it somewhat difficult to think of any possible applications of this knowledge. And of course, it would be better if the rest of the Expedition – and the Athosians – do not learn of this. It is of course Teyla’s decision to tell her people.”

“Actually,” said Beckett again, “I think I know what it’s for. I’ve named it the WTA gene – Wraith Technology Activation. I think it might do the same thing as ATA but for Wraith technology. Teyla, what do you know of Wraith ships?”

“I confess, not much. They are living, it is said; they are the Hive and yet part of the Hive also.” She shivered.

“Well, if we ever need someone to pilot a Wraith ship, now we know who,” said Major Sheppard. “What’s for lunch?”


End file.
